Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. Our ministry was built on the truth of God’s love. It doesn’t conform to society’s wishes. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Those who know me well will recognize that there are definitive differences in the creation of every sermon from this point forward. It is God’s will that has brought this to be. We wish only that God’s truth will be shared within His words as brought to us by the Spirit as it fills my heart, mind, and soul to be shared with my hands, but with His words alone.
You will find us in the following location: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Rev. Laura’s other sites: Facebook & Blogspot & Twitter
Prayer List: We have many on our prayer list. Some wish to remain anonymous, and others only wish to have their first names mentioned. Our prayer list grows or changes every week. This is our current list.
- Please continue to pray for Elder Cal Jennings and his health issues, which are numerous. He has been having issues with his pain, vision, and memory. Add to the prayers with a need for new housing as the family is in dire straits there at this point in time.
- Please pray for Sister Theresa Bogard who is going through a lot right now and still fighting for justice regarding the day she was struck by a car at an intersection now nearly three years ago. May she receive the justice so long denied her.
- We are ever watchful in regard to the weather, the unrest, and the virus and response to that virus. Let us pray for calm skies and seas, calm voices and spirits, and also healthy outcomes for those who are affected.
- We pray that the upcoming school year is filled with progress for our children who are attending and for the teachers and staff that must adapt to what is considered the “new normal” around this world.
- My family needs some serious prayer for health and well-being. My father has been diagnosed with COVID-19 complicated by other health issues he has been fighting for a decade or more. My mother is still recovering from surgery and also must be tested to ensure COVID-19 would not complicate the surgery she went through recently. Four other family members are also to be tested to ensure that they would be safe from COVID-19 Coronavirus.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for all of our outreach ministries with Pastor Stephen Okoth, Pastor Robert Nganwa, Pastor Simon Peter Javaji, Rev. Lisa Tyler, and all the others who have joined us.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God be heard through the Spirit.
- Pray for our friends and families that their tomorrows bring blessings and pray our own be the same.
- Pray for those suffering as a result of the terrors that have occurred just this past week around this world.
- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.
- Pray that truth is revealed where falsehoods have been shared around this world.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We bring our sick and wounded up in prayer, including My parents, siblings and nephews. We pray for relief from suffering our members Elder Cal Jennings and Theresa Bogard have been going through. We continue to pray for answers to mysteries for health issues and money issues with several members and family members. We pray for our poor and desolate, our brothers and sisters who have been brought devastation due to the terrors around this world and all of the natural disasters, storms, and so forth this past week. We pray for those in our outreach ministries that their reach gains momentum and their needs are met. For each of these we pray in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Lauren Daigle ~ You Say https://youtu.be/sIaT8Jl2zpI
Sermon: We are exploring the many ways evil can hide in the midst of good. This week we are exploring the Scroll of Proverbs to begin with. Evil verses Good, and where we will find both. That’s something we must practice our discernment in order to recognize and realize appropriately.
Proverbs 13:21 KJV – Evil pursueth sinners: but to the righteous good shall be repayed.
Why is it that people don’t realize and recognize the fact that evil grabs at the heels of people who cannot resist temptation? Temptation comes in a lot of different disguises. Sin is that moment when temptation overcomes all common sense. That’s what we must learn to discern as this verse shares. Our next verse shares another view of this.
Proverbs 14:19 KJV – The evil bow before the good; and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
When God’s truth is seen and portrayed, we will often see those who spread evil and discord will end up on the sidelines. They end up watching as truth keeps those who listen and hear God’s Holy Spirit on that path of righteousness. One day we’ll be able to reach out and walk through those gates that surround God’s paradise. It is a home that waits for the warriors of truth and unconditional love to reach those mansions with so many rooms for the righteous to fill. Yet here we fight the evil and wickedness that permeates this earth. Here we see still more of that pursuit of righteousness.
Proverbs 14:22 KJV – Do they not err that devise evil? But mercy and truth shall be to them that devise good.
One thing we often never realize is that evil is literally a slip of the tongue away from any human being on this earth. You will notice how some of these verses are reflections of what Jesus shared in His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus proved many, many times, to see reality that everyone else ignored. This is something we all must practice in order to see as Jesus saw, be as Jesus was, pursue righteousness in the best way, not haphazardly. There’s a reason we should be careful as to what we do and say while pursuing righteousness. This next verse explains why.
Proverbs 15:3 KJV – The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
As children we learn many Christmas songs, and one in particular should be seen in another way, beyond the childhood fun we remember. That song is titled Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Two lines in particular actually reflects God’s presence through the Holy Spirit. “He sees you when you are sleeping. He knows when you are awake.” This is something we all have to realize, when we learn of the Holy Trinity, just how much the three that are one can see, hear, and know about each and every person to ever have lived on this earth. The fact is nothing we do is a secret to God. The same goes with anything we say, or think. That’s why we must be ever watchful and careful in our pursuit of life in this world. Being a good person takes practice. Being a fully godly person takes even more practice. In a world where we can be anything, do anything, one thing we should learn how to be is kind. It is something any decent person should want to be, kindness is a gift from God through those of us who know the art of kindness is often lost in the shuffle and hustle and bustle around us. This next verse is a warning to people to watch what they do and such.
Proverbs 17:13 KJV – Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.
Evil has its own house, its own place in this world. There are so many good things in this world that we hardly would realize there’s just as much evil. It is the balance that so many wonder about, for every good and righteous thing or person in this world there would be one who is evil and wicked. Just as there was the serpent of evil in the Garden of Eden, there would be many, many methods that evil permeates this earth we share. Here is yet another warning.
Proverbs 28:10 KJV – Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.
One of our members back at the beginning of the work we began now nearly fifteen years ago called the seven troubles as they are, evil, wickedness in action. It is easy to ignore God’s Word, many will do so without thinking twice. That’s why we have to stop, close our mouths, and think before we speak, or do, anything. It will save us a lot of grief in the present, and in the future. In this next verse we are looking at what a good, righteous, humble woman can be for her husband and for God as well.
Proverbs 31:12 KJV – She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
There are as many proverbs and verses for righteous women as there would be for righteous men. It’s something that must balance in the end, in order to be fully understood and recognized. We will work with our last verse of this day in the Scroll of Ecclesiastes. Stop and think in your daily comings and goings. Work hard to learn God’s Word, put His Word into practice in your personal life, a little at a time, and you’ll see what righteousness can do to your heart, your mind, your spirit, and your very soul. Remember, God knows everything we think, say, do or do not. It’s better to recognize that now than be left at the end where standing room only would be the idea.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 KJV – For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
This is something I have been asked about, this specific verse. How is it God will judge? Remember, the Holy Trinity, God IS the FATHER of ALL. Jesus IS the SAVIOR of ALL. The Holy Spirit IS a GIFT from both God and Jesus to help prepare us for the journey into righteousness. Jesus is our judgment. It is He who will show us exactly who we are to the smallest and to the greatest parts of each of us, conscious, and subconscious, and unconscious all in one. Knowing the difference between good and evil is one thing. Knowing how evil can hide in the midst of good is another. Knowing how to determine whether we are on the path of righteousness is something that takes practice to achieve. We all will have days when we fall off the path. Remembering Him and asking Him for help is the one thing we have to remember to manage in those times we get lost. All of us get lost on the path of righteousness. This is the one path that doesn’t have a physical road map to follow. Your smartphone, your computer, none of those can show you the path toward righteousness. God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit would be the only way to see what isn’t there, hear what is silent, know what is unknown. Now that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus taught us saying:
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
(Matthew 6:9-13)
Closing Song: Tim McGraw ~ Humble and Kind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awzNHuGqoMc
~ Shalom ~
Rev. Laura A. Neff
Elder Calvin Jennings
Covenant of Hope Ministries Main Site: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Scripture Excerpts: The New Open Bible Study Edition: Copyright © 1990: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc.
Scripture Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright © 1982: E. E. Gaddy and Associates, Inc.
Scripture Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright ©circa 1890-1910: International Bible Press, The John C. Winston Co.; Philadelphia, PA, USA
Sermon or Study Copyright © 2021 http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries is not to exploit fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all that is created through fear together as the bringers of the light of Jesus found in the midst of darkness.
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